The Adding Machine

Playwright Elmer Rice (18921967) wrote several great works, including the naturalistic Street Scene and the innovative On Trial, but his 1923 masterpiece is a surreal doozy: The Adding Machine. The bookkeeper hero of this nihilistic fairy tale, Mr. Zero, comes to work one day to discover his replacementa machine. Rejection leads to murder, murder leads to trial, trial leads to executionand then the play gets really weird. Rices stylistic innovations gave the emerging 20s tenets of naturalistic theater such a profound knock that its been a little uneasy ever since. Even on the page (where it normally remains, due to elaborate production requirements), the script still packs a punch. Its an audacious first production (through Dec. 13) for New Century Theatre Company, which boasts some of Seattles best and brightest stage talentin this show, Paul Morgan Stetler, Amy Thone, Jen Taylor, and Darragh Kennan. At a time when major theaters are trimming their budgets, itll be fascinating to see what artists with passion, talent, and only $55,000raised from family and friendscan do with Rices rarely produced trophy work. JOHN LONGENBAUGH [Also see Kevin Phinney's review here, and more from Longenbaugh here.] ACT Theatre, 700 Union St., 292-7676, www.newcenturytheatre